Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 18.djvu/170

* SIBERIA. 132 SIBEKIA. the iron and steel, one-tenth of the refined sugar, and one-third of the manufactures imported were carried by the railroad. The Trans-Siberian Railroad, however, is hav- ing a remarkable effect upon the country. The building of tlie road was begun in 1891 and was completed in its main features in eleven years, including a branch across JIanchuria to Port Arthur and Dalny. It starts from Tchelyabinsk, on the eastern slope of the Urals, and its length to Vladivostok, on the Pacific, is about 4500 miles. The continuous railway route from Saint Peters- burg to Port Artliur is 5620 miles long. The road cost $172.52.5,000. It is giving an impetus to agriculture and all other business enterprises of tile country. The sea trade is comparatively small. The vessels clearing from Vladivostok and other Pacific ports in 1900 were 339. of 375,- 000 tons. North of this port is Alexandrovski, which Russia has turned into a coaling station for its warships. A number of merchant vessels have successfully made their way between Euro- pean ports and the mouths of the Ob and Yenisei rivers through the Kara Sea and Arctic Ocean, but this route is as yet of no practical impor- tance. In 1898 there were 402 schools. 1074 teachers, and 27,706 pupils. There is a university at Tomsk. The predominant religious faith is Orthodox Greek, as in Russia. The population in 1897 was 5.727,090, of whom 3,367.576 lived in Western Siberia. The Russians constitute about two-thirds of the population. The Russian im- migration into Siberia in 1901 was 128.131, and in the seven years ending in 1900 the average immigration was 150,000 Russians a year. About one-third of the immigrants, disheartened by their pioneering experiences, have returned to Russia. The old Siberian exile system was abolished in 1900. Next to the Russians in numerical importance are the Kirghizes, Buriats, and Yakuts. For governiuent and furtlier details, see Russia. Ethnology. The peoples of Siberia are ethno- graphically and linguistically very diverse. Apart from the Russians, who number 61 per cent, of the total population, several thousand Poles and about 500 Germans, besides the Semites and the Aryan gypsies, about 8000 and 5000 respectively, the Silierians are mainly Ural- Altaic in race. The tribes of Western Siberia are akin to the Samoyeds (q.v. ). who themselves luimber about 17,000, through the western Finns, while the eastern .Siberians belong to the Tungusic group ( see TusGUS ), and there is a large population of the so-called Pale-Asiatic stock. The Western tribes com)U'ised under the name of Yeniseians include 6000 Woguls, the Ostiaks, of whom there are about 35U0. and the Soiots. numbering some 2000. The Tungusic population amoimts to 36,500. Tlie Turko-Tatar division of the Ural-Altaic familv in Siberia comprises 230,300 Yakute. and 100.000 Tatars proper, while the Mongolie division includes 59.000 Buryats, 30,500 Chinese and JIanchus, and 2000 Koreans. The Pale-Asiatic division is repre- sented by 8000 Tehulstchi, 5000 Koriaks and Yukaghirs, 8000 Gilyaks. 3000 Kamtchadales, and an equal nuber of Aino. See Ural-Altaic. History. The history of Siberia, an episode in that of the Russian Empire, is a history of national expansion — of adventure, exploration. settlement, and development — a process still go- ing on in all its phases. In the reign of Ivan 1'. au enterprising family, the Strogonoff, car- ried on an active trade in Eastern Russia, near the Urals, and, favored by liberal concessions from the Crown, they founded towns and de- veloped the country. In 1579, with the Czar's permission, they equipped and sent over the Urals into Western Siberia an expedition of about eight hundred men, under the command of an outlaw, Vassili. conunonly known as Yer- mak, or the 'millstone.' a Russian who had joined the Don Cossacks. With this force Yermak de- feated the Tatars, captured Isker or Sibir, the capital of Kutchum Khan, and won pardon and honor by giving a new empire to Russia. In the spring of 1582 he sent to Moscow the report of his triumph. Y'ermak was killed in 1584, but Russia held the country he had won. Tol)olsk was built on the site of Sibir and many forts, or ostrogs, were located at strategic points. The Siberian tribes had neither the power nor the ill to oft'er any organized resistance to Russian absorption. Southward there was more trouble from the warlike tribes of Central Asia, and this determined the direction of Russian expansion eastward along the line of least resistance. In 1636 the explorers and fur traders had reached the mouth of the Yenisei, in 1637 the.y had moved forward to the Lena, two .vears later they were on the shores of the Sea of Okhotsk, and before the close of the century the peninsula of Kamtchatka had been brought under Russian authority. As in all this region there was no organized government, its conquest was the peace- ful work of the pioneer, interrupted bv barbarous attacks from hostile natives. Siberia extended then southward to the Irtvsh, the boundary of Mongolia, and to the Amur. When the Russians under KhabaroiT reached the Amur in 1651 the.v came into contact with the JIanchu power, which had just conquered China, and the long struggle began for the control of the Amur and for ilanchuria. The advance on the Annir was due to the energy, foresight, and administrative abilit.v of Khabaroft', who successfully withstood the llanchus. In 1689, when Russian interests w'ere in less competent hands, the Treat.v of Xertchinsk was made be- tween Russia and China, the first treaty made b.v the latter Empire with a ^'estern power. By this treat.v Russia yielded the middle and lower portions of the river, and the struggle for the Amur was not resumed until the middle of the nineteenth century. During this period the at- tention of Russia was turned more to the west, whither it had been directed by Peter the Great. In 1847 General Muravieff (q.v.) was appointed Governor-General of Eastern Siberia. He ob- tained authority for establishing a post of the Russian-American Company at the mouth of the Amur, for the formation of an effective military force from the Cossack settlers, and finally in 1853 for the occupation of De Castries Bay on the Gulf of Tartary and of the island of Sagha- lien. Still the hostile attitude of the Asiatic Department in Saint Petersburg embarrassed Muravieff until the outbreak of the Crimean War gave him his great opportunity. With a view to the adequate defense of Russian interests on the Pacific, he was empowered to conduct negotia- tions with the Chinese CJovernment directl.v. without reference to Saint Petersburg, and to